Planet In Focus - Our Planet, Your Focus, Our Festival

The winner of Best International Short is Rainer Komers’ strange journey along the Nome Road System in Alaska. Powerfully evocative imagery. Stark ambient sounds. A strange, dreamlike world.

The winner of the Best International Long Form is Manel Mayol’s feature about the world’s third largest dam along the BioBio river in Chile. Switch Off is an elegant and angry epistle against ENDESA, the Spanish hydro-electrical company behind the dam.

The winner of the Best Canadian Short Form is Jeff Sterne’s Car Culture. This is like a neurotic, therapy drunk, angry cousin of Stephen King’s Christine.

The winner of the Best Canadian Long Form is Giséle Gordon’s unforgettable docu-journey of Cree playwright and artist Floyd Favel as he travels from Saskatchewan to Siberia to find meaning in an ancient explosion.

Eco-Hero Community Award: Bob Hunter, In Memoriam

Alanis Obomsawin, OC

Mark Haslam Award: The Children of the Mountains -Jukka Holopainen, Boyd Pickup and Marge Babon for Children of The Mountain winners of The First Mark Haslam Award

The winner of the inaugural Mark Haslam Award is the feature by Boyd Pickup, Jukka Holopainen and Margie Babon about one of the last hunter-gatherer tribes in the world, the Agta of the Philippines.

The winner of the Best International Short is Sergio Bloch’s Mini Cine Tupy – a charming documentary about a garbage collector in Sao Paolo who brightens up the lives of neighbourhood children with Saturday matinees in the movie-theatre he has constructed in his garage out of recycled materials.

Sin Embargo

The winner of the Best International Feature is Judith Grey’s inspiring portrait of Cuban ingenuity. Sin Embargo combines beautiful images and evocative Cuban music with the stories of ordinary people who find ways to create beauty, functionality and art out of scarce materials.

The winner of the Best Canadian Short is Sébastien Élias’s dramatic black and white imagining of what life would be like in Montreal during a catastrophic drought. Spectacularly scripted, acted, and directed, Elias’ The Water Theives is a warning and an appeal to ensure the availability and quality of the water supply.

The winner of the Best Canadian Feature is Jason Young’s extraordinarily personal film Animals. By sharing his own ethical contradictions and conflicts between being an animal lover and a meat-eater Young has used the cinema to its greatest potential, creating a documentary that raises issues and inspires reflection without being didactic.

Henry Lickers

Henry Lickers is a member of the Seneca Nation, Turtle Clan. He studied biology at the University of Toronto, and has been a pioneer in building bridges between western science and the Traditional Environmental Knowledge of Aboriginal Peoples.

He has been the Founder and Director of the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne’s Department of the Environment for over 26 years. During this time, he has been principle investigator on the EAGLE (or Effect on Aboriginals in the Great Lakes Environment ) Project, the Naturalized Knowledge Systems Project, and the First Nation’s Community Health Indicators Project. Some of his other commitments have been: Member of the Science and Technology Advisory Council to Environment Canada; Scientific Co-Chair of The Assembly of First Nations Environment Committee;
p ast Board Member of the International Joint Commission, Science Advisory Board; and
p ast Member of the Panel on Ecological Integrity of Canada's National Parks.

Mr. Lickers grew up on the Six Nations reserve. He has been married for 33 years and has three children. His son David accepted the award on his behalf, as Henry was presenting a paper at a Forestry Conference in Alberta.

Frédéric Back

Frédéric Back was born in Strasbourg in 1924, and came to Montreal in 1946 when he began making educational films for Radio Canada. In 1968 he turned exclusively to making animated films, pursuing his passion to make films in defence of the environment, especially targeted at young audiences. Over a 25 year career he made numerous award-winning films, including “Crac” which won an Oscar and 20 other awards in 1981, and “The Man who Planted Trees” which won an Oscar in 1988. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Knight of the Order of Quebec, an Officer of Arts and Letters in France, and received the Governor-General’s Performing Arts Award in 1994.

He is an ardent environmentalist, being a founding member of the Society for the Defence of Animals, and of the Society for the Prevention of Pollution. He is a vegetarian, and along with his wife has planted over 20 thousand trees on their farm and along roads and river banks. He is still doing illustrations for organizations that are working towards a better and more peaceful world. Mr. Back was present to accept his award.

- One More Dead Fish, Allan & Stefan Forbes, 2002

A behind-the-barricades documentary that gives voice to the fears and frustration of hand-line fishermen in Barrington Passage, Newfoundland, whose licenses are being revoked in favour of fishing corporations and indiscriminate industrial trawlers that have destroyed the Atlantic fisheries and ecosystem.

- Co-Winners

Yung Chang for Up Your Yangtze

A tongue-in-cheek documentary about international tourists who take a cruise up the Yangtze River in China to the environmentally devastating Three Gorges Dam.

Sean Kelly for Spilling the Beans

A documentary about a Guatemalan farmer’s attempts to enter the fair-trade coffee market and make links with the Just Us Coffee Roasters Co-operative in Nova Scotia.

(for outstanding achievement in raising environmental awareness through film or video)

John and Janet Foster

The Fosters have been producing nature and conservation films since the early 1960’s. John Foster joined the CBC in 1962 as host of Country Canada and later This Land of Ours , two of the earliest environmental series on Canadian television. The Fosters continue to produce nature documentaries for the Discovery Channel, CBC, NHK Japan, and TVOntario. They are currently working on a film on Algonquin Park.

(for outstanding achievement in raising environmental awareness and community activism)

Jean-Dominic Lévesque-René

Jean-Dominic is a 17 year old from Ile-Bizard, Quebec, who has been on an environmental crusade since 1994 to ban the use of pesticides throughout Canada. His activism began when he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma – a cancer he believes was caused by early childhood exposure to pesticides.

Programmers' Choice Award - The Return of Navajo Boy, Jeff Spitz, 2000

The Return of Navajo Boy is a powerful story about the legacy of images created by John Wayne westerns, a Navajo community devastated by colonialism and uranium mining, and a family’s retelling and reclaiming of their history. The film forced the US Department of Justice and the US Environmental Protection Agency to take unprecedented actions to provide compensation and remedy the situation.

Big Pitch Award - Clucky Keegstra, Ann Shin and Neil Spiegel

Clucky Keegstra is a mock documentary which follows the life of one chicken, Clucky, who doesn't believe that chickens are raised and slaughtered en masse for human consumption. The film uses humour and satire to point out the alarming realities of agribusiness - particularly that of the poultry industry.

Eco Hero Award - Dr. Rosalie Bertell

In recognition of a lifetime of outstanding contributions to scientific research, public awareness and non-violent action on environmental issues. Bertell, a nun and scientist, has worked in the field of environmental health for over three decades, has lead scientific investigations into the tragedies in Bhopal and Chernobyl, and works by preference on behalf of indigenous peoples and citizen groups most adversely affected by militarism and pollution.

Outstanding Media Maker Award - John A. Livingston

In recognition of pioneering contributions to the creation and broadcasting of environmental elevision programming in Canada. Livingston was the first executive producer of the award-winning CBC television series The Nature of Things, was president of the Canadian Audubon Society, taught environmental studies at York University in Toronto, and has written numerous books on wildlife.

Programmers' Choice Award - Why the Rabbit Turns White, Tantoo Cardinal and Greg Coyes, 1998

The land has been plagued by a terrible drought and it's up to Wasakechak - the Trickster - to find out why. Despite being stripped of his special powers, Wasakechak sets out on a colourful journey through a magical world of spirits and talking animals. Why the Rabbit Turns White uses the energetic artwork of Ojibwe artist Norval Morrisseau as a template for a humourous and engaging tale about being thankful for the gifts given to us by nature.

Audience Choice Award - The Great Dance, Damon and Craig Foster, 2000

The Great Dance is a beautifully crafted invitation into the quickly disappearing traditional world of the San, the indigenous peoples of southern Africa who have lived in the same region for over 30,000 years. The extraordinary film combines exquisitely photographed documentary footage with carefully recreated "dramatizations" to illustrate the San's respectful and symbiotic relationship with the animals with whom they once shared the land.